


Shining Armor

by Viper_Rock



Category: Final Fantasy XIII
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-15
Updated: 2015-09-15
Packaged: 2018-04-20 23:18:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4805963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Viper_Rock/pseuds/Viper_Rock
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lightning was part of the Guardian Corps. A defender, tasked with standing for her entire organization. Vanille wants to remind everyone how much Lightning does for them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shining Armor

Somehow, it was Lightning's aloof stoicism that made her easier to talk to than anyone else on the team. The others were garrulous, buoyant, and open in turns, and radiated strength and warmth, but _she_ was the one Vanille felt safe to be around and talk to. Lightning.

The others didn't feel that way, but that didn't matter.

All that mattered was that Vanille didn't have to worry about the soldier judging her. Fang thought of her as a younger sister who had to be protected at all costs, Snow and Sahz thought of her as a kid, and Hope looked at her like she was somehow perfect. Vanille didn't want to be treated with kid gloves or like she was made of glass. Lightning wouldn't do that. She would treat Vanille like an equal, like she did everyone else. Lightning expected them to keep up or fall behind. She gave no quarter to either her allies or her enemies.

Vanille appreciated that attitude more than she'd have expected she would. Lightning pushed her. Pushed all of them, even Fang, to be better, stronger, faster. And despite that, despite pushing them so hard, Lightning seemed to know exactly when they'd reached their limits, and when to call for a break.

Lightning had left them behind in the Vile Peaks so long ago, she realized, because the soldier had known they weren't really spent. If they'd pushed, they could have kept up, just like Hope had. Lightning had tested him, pushed him and when he gave his all she refused to abandon him, despite her own wellspring of energy. She let him rest and watched over him while he slept. When the rest of the group followed suit, she would take first watch and watch over them as well, every bit the guardian she'd joined the Corps to be.

Which was why this night, when it was Vanille's watch, she sneakily purloined Lightning's Guardian Corps pauldron and set to carefully polishing it. She wanted to remind not only herself, but Lightning and everyone else that the older woman was on their side above all else. No matter how hard things got. No matter how hard she seemed to be pushing them. She wasn't giving up on them, she wasn't leaving them behind as long as they didn't give up, and she wasn't going to _let_ them give up.

Vanille hummed quietly to herself as she buffed the metal with a thin layer of flan goo. She glanced around at the others, all sound asleep around their campfire. They slept deeply despite their anxiety and the nightmarish doubts that plagued them during the day. They were too tired for dreams. She wondered if maybe that was part of Lightning's reason for pushing them so hard.

She startled when she got to Lightning. The woman's eyes were cracked open and Vanille was caught in her deep blue gaze.

"Um, hi," she squeaked, cursed herself inwardly for the sound, and cleared her throat. "I didn't know you were awake."

She thought she detected a faint smirk on Lightning's face, but it was hard to tell in the poor lighting.

"You're not as quiet as you think you are," the soldier said. "And you're humming."

Vanille looked down, feeling guilty for waking her up.

Lightning sat up, picking up her vest from where she'd been using it as a pillow and putting it on. "Don't worry about it. I was going to get up soon anyway. It's almost dawn." Sure enough, the horizon was beginning to brighten. "I'm going to hunt down breakfast. You can give that back to me when I get back."

"Can I come with you? I'm almost done," Vanille said quickly. It would be nice to get away from the others for a bit, and maybe get to know Lightning a little better.

She didn't know quite what the look Lightning gave her meant, but it made the redhead blush as the soldier settled back down. She bent her head and hurriedly set to finishing her task of polishing the shoulder guard.

"You don't need to hurry," Lightning pointed out. "Nothing's going to wake these guys for at least another hour. We have plenty of time."

Her choice of words struck Vanille as slightly ironic, given that they _didn't_ have time. Their brands were progressing at a frightening rate, and although they'd decided on Oerba as a destination, getting there wasn't going to be easy. All of the landmarks she and Fang had known five hundred years ago had changed, with very few exceptions. They had spent an entire day going the wrong direction after mistaking a distant rock outcropping for a familiar campsite, only to find upon reaching it that there was nothing familiar about it.

Lightning had pushed them extra hard the next day to make up for the lost time, especially Fang, until it seemed like she was blaming her. Fang grumbled and cursed the soldier for it, but Vanille knew her sister was even more frustrated and angry at herself. If Lightning hadn't made herself such an easy target for Fang's ire, the Pulsian warrior might have put herself at unnecessary risk on the battlefield trying to work it out.

Vanille didn't know if Lightning did it on purpose or not, but she was grateful nonetheless.

She finally wiped the pauldron clean and held it out to its owner. "All finished," she said with a shy smile.

"Thanks."


End file.
